Badminton Fiasco Prompts Calls for Sport’s Overhaul

JAKARTA–The failure of Indonesia’s badminton team to win a medal at the London Olympics, marking the end of a gold-medal streak that dates back to Barcelona 1992, has prompted some to ask: Is something wrong with the way the sport is managed?

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Greysia Polii, left, and Meiliana Jauhari on the court against South Korea during the London Olympics.

Many Indonesians think so. Indonesia has traditionally been a badminton powerhouse, having won the Thomas Cup world team tournament 13 times, and the team remains a force to be reckoned with. But in recent years it has had a drought of prestigious titles outside of the Olympics, prompting lots of soul-searching in a country that treats badminton players as major stars.

Indonesia hasn’t won the biennial Thomas Cup since 2000, while the last time it took the Uber Cup, the world team championship for women, was in 1996. Last year, Indonesia’s shuttlers took just two titles out of 60 available in the 12-tournament Super Series–badminton’s top competition–while China bagged 47 titles.

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To add insult to injury, two Indonesian female players were disqualified from the London Olympics for trying to lose a group match to secure a more favorable draw later in a widely publicized scandal that also involved Chinese and South Korean players. Both players said they were sorry but denied accusations of being unsporting. The Indonesian Badminton Association banned the players from playing until November, while urging the World Badminton Federation to make rule changes to prevent the problem in the future.

Officials and former players offer a host of explanations for Indonesia’s slump. But many point their fingers at the PBSI, and the way the Indonesian program overall is managed.

“My take is there are many problems including the grooming system, a lack of long-term programs, poor rapport between players and association officials, and a shortage of funding,” said Susi Susanti, a retired Indonesian player who won a 1992 Olympic women’s singles gold medal, and is married to fellow 1992 Olympic champion Alan Budi Kusuma.

“The association has been badly managed,” added Fritz Simanjuntak, a former official at the Indonesian Olympics Committee. Among the problems, he said, is that association officials appointed coaches without consulting players, “resulting in an unfavorable atmosphere at the training center,” Mr. Simanjuntak said. He said the sports’ leaders also haven’t done enough serious research to determine how to make their younger players more competitive.

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Simon Santoso of Indonesia returns a shot against Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia at the Japan Open in Tokyo on Sept. The Malaysian won the match 21-7, 21-17.

“We have never paid attention to why former stars like Liem Swie King could jump so high while smashing hard and what makes Taufik Hidayat able to make powerful flicks,” then teach those skills to other players,” he said.

In June, former players petitioned the badminton association, expressing concerns about the sport’s decline and accusing it of mismanaging the sport and calling for reforms. Djoko Suyanto, who was association chairman at the time, pledged to take measures to improve performance, including improving fitness, modernizing training programs, adding more facilities and increasing pay for coaches.

The association’s secretary general, Jacob Rusdianto, said the PBSI is doing the best it can, but it suffers from insufficient funding, and can hardly hope to match the resources of some bigger countries. He singled out China, which he said has emerged as a more formidable force in badminton because its government has been pouring money into player development, with prospects recruited as young as 9 years old and subjected to rigorous training with military discipline. The Chinese government has also made badminton part of school curricula and young talents are supported financially, he said.

While the Indonesian government does provide funding, the amount is not fixed and can’t cover all expenses, Mr. Rusdianto said. “We understand the government has other priorities,” he said. “We know we can’t make the government do like governments do in China and South Korea.”

Yuli Mumpuni Widarso, a secretary at Indonesia’s Youth and Sports Ministry, said the government stopped providing an annual budget of 14 billion rupiah, or about $1.5 million, to PBSI two years ago. But she said the association could propose funding for important international events in which Indonesian players would compete. This year, the government allocated 200 billion rupiah under a separate program to promote 12 sports in which Indonesia stands a chance of winning in international events, including badminton. But she declined to say how much money was earmarked for badminton.

Mr. Rusdianto at PBSI said that last year the association spent 40 billion rupiah for training and other expenses. Most of the funds come from sponsors, including $2 million annually from Japanese badminton equipment manufacturer Yonex, he said.

“We at the association are left to our own devices,” he said. He said the association needs more doctors, nutritionists, psychologists and sports physiologists to help improve performance. Even with limited budgets, he said, the association has tried to keep up by building more dormitories and providing better fitness facilities at its training camp in an eastern Jakarta suburb.

To be sure, Indonesia shows glimmers of brilliance occasionally. This year, Indonesia’s mixed doubles pair of Tantowi Ahmad and Lilyana Natsir became the first Indonesian team to win All England, the world’s oldest badminton tournament, since 2003.

But a lot needs to be done if Indonesia is to reclaim past glory when its shuttlers dominated major tournaments, observers say.

Mr. Simanjuntak, the former badminton official, said a scoring system for badminton introduced in 2006 that awards points after every rally and calls for the game to be decided when a player gets to 21 might have contributed to Indonesia’s poor performance.

Under the previous scoring system, each game was played to 15 points in men’s singles and in all doubles games. In women’ singles, a game was played to 11 points. Those and other rule changes have forced players to change their tactics.

“I notice that since the system was adopted, the performance of Indonesian players has dropped. Players often make unforced errors,” he said. “The new scoring system requires faster speed, higher concentration and intelligence.”

Gita Wirjawan, the country’s trade minister who was recently elected chairman of the badminton association, has vowed to embark on more reform efforts to bring back badminton glory, including improving the governing body’s professionalism.

Mr. Simanjuntak said that Mr. Wirjawan’s selection brought fresh hope for the sport, given his good track record as a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s cabinet.

“He’s known as a person who puts professionalism first and is results-oriented. That’s what the association really needs,” he said. “But the question is: As a busy government minister, will he have time for badminton?”

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